Medical headlamp assemblies having attached video cameras are old. These assemblies, however, tend to be heavy and are tethered by cables to a base station. This potentially interferes with the wearer's freedom of movement and may prove to be a distraction during delicate surgical procedures. For medical headlamp assemblies that must be physically tethered, in order to power the headlamp, little benefit could be gained by equipping the assembly with a wireless, as opposed to a wired, camera or vision system.
Untethered medical headlamp assemblies, having efficient lamps that permit the use of battery packs on the headband, are currently available. Typically, an adjustable linkage attaches the lamp to a headband. Although it might at first seem possible to simply attach an existing wireless video camera to the lamp, so that the camera images the area that is being illuminated, size, mass and power constraints make this an undesirable solution.
Installing a wireless video camera assembly directly on the lamp adds to the weight of the lamp/camera combination, and results in a requirement for a stiffer linkage, to prevent the lamp/camera from drooping. But a stiffer linkage is undesirable as this reduces the ease of adjustment. Also, a bulkier lamp/camera unit may act as a distraction to the wearer, who has some awareness of an element above the lamp, very near his forehead. Finally, a greater mass results in greater inertia when the wearer rotates his head, resulting in an unpleasant sensation during head rotation, and more torque at the location where the linkage holding up the lamp meets the headband.
Moreover, transmitting raw video over a WI-FI link can consume upwards of 2 watts of power. This means that a complete WI-FI camera system would consume more power than the medical headlamp, thereby requiring over-frequent battery swap-outs, and appearing impractical. The data compression necessary to reduce the required WI-FI data rate requires components that are bulky enough so that including them in the video camera housing, makes that housing bulky and heavy to the point of impracticability.
Another problem encountered, is that of addressing the differing requirements of different physicians, with different arm lengths, and practicing different types of surgery. A manually adjustable system requires a free hand, something that is typically not available in surgery. Also, such a system can go out of adjustment, especially if accidentally touched by an assistant. Yet a fixed system will be out of focus for those doctors who prefer to keep the head at a different distance from other doctors, perhaps due to having a shorter or longer arm length.